


Won't You Ease My Mind

by Noducksinpond



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Humor, Not Canon Compliant, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2019-10-29 03:20:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17800115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noducksinpond/pseuds/Noducksinpond
Summary: Jackie and Kelso don't get back together at the end of the ski trip. Months later, when Hyde tries and fails to crash Eric and Donna's date, the two of them come up with a plan. A plan that's so bad, it might actually work. ["Hyde, if you wanna make out with me, the answer is probably no." Well, what if he had asked? And what if she'd said yes]





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is something a bit different from what I usually write, but it's been sitting in my head since sometime last year, and I figured it was time to at least try and get it out.  
> Plotwise this takes place in between Ski Trip in season 1 and I Love Cake in season 2. It's not intended as a full episode rewrite, so I'll avoid reusing dialogue from the show as much as I can, and if something is exactly the same as in canon, we'll skip it. The outline for this is about 30 chapters long. Hopefully, you'll enjoy this.

Michael’s hat said _Truckers make good lovers_. Jackie didn’t know where, he had gotten it from, but he had a lot of weird stuff, so it wasn’t like it surprised her. It was still weird though even gross, but Jackie didn’t care. Her wonderful, sweet Michael had walked all the way here from Point Place to the ski cabin. Just because he was sorry about Pam Macy. It was all so romantic. That had to be it, right? All of their friends were staring at them, Hyde rolling his eyes at her question. But it had to be it. She loved Michael, and Michael loved her, and he had wanted to prove he was really sorry. Michael’s mouth was hanging open.

She had never felt as betrayed, as when Leslie had come running to tell her, what she had seen behind the gym. That Michael, Jackie’s Michael had kissed Pam Macy of all people. It had even been making out! Michael had absolutely deserved her dumping him and taking all of his friends with her to the ski cabin without him. Hyde was sitting on top of her parents’ bureau, leaning slightly forward watching them with interest. Eric and Donna shared a look between each other. Fez had passed out on the couch.

“Actually, he hitched a ride with a trucker so,” Eric said, without looking over at them. Jackie practically shoved Michael away from her. All of the joy of seeing Michael here, evaporated into thin air. She hoped Eric was lying, it would be like him to lie, it was Eric. He called her the devil on a regular basis, it wouldn’t be beneath him to try and ruin something, she loved.

“Eric!” Michael protested, coincidentally making all of Jackie’s romantic fantasies come crashing down around her. She shoved him again, glaring daggers at him. Michael looked mostly confused, after all she had been crying about him, minutes earlier.

“You did, man,” Eric replied, almost sounding defensive. Jackie wasn’t sure, why he said that, and she didn’t care. What was important was what Michael had done or hadn’t done to be more precise.

“I can’t believe you, Michael!” Jackie bit at him, anger boiling in her entire body. She had been upset about Michael all night, but now she was just angry. “First, you cheat on me with that slut Pam Macy! Then you don’t even walk through the snow to get to me and apologize. You still haven’t apologized!”

“But Jackie, it was really cold out there!” Michael protested lamely, out of the corner of her eye, she could see Donna and Eric sighing heavily. Jackie clenched her fists. “And I felt really lonely, since you know, Eric totally ditched me.”

“Michael!” Jackie practically yelled. If he hadn’t even come here to see her, but just because he wanted to see Eric of all people, it was definitely over. Who would pick Eric over her? It was _Eric_ for crying out loud.

“Kelso, I don’t think that is making it any better,” Donna added, her voice a little small, but Jackie barely noticed her. She was busy glaring at Michael, tears welling up in her eyes. She didn’t want to cry again, she’d already cried too much about him. Stupid, _stupid_ Michael.

“Oh, and you. You know obviously you totally ditched me too,” Michael said. This time Jackie shoved him so hard, Michael actually stumbled backwards and fell on his ass. A small part of Jackie’s brain registered the fact, that Hyde let out a small laugh over on the bureau.

“You know, I gotta say. This is a lot more fun, than you two just jumping each other and getting back together,” Hyde said. He almost looked like he was enjoying the show. Even if Jackie usually didn’t mind him too much, besides the fact that he was dirty and poor, and had given her a shoulder to cry on only to then be an insensitive jerk, Jackie fumed at him now. Not only was her and Michael’s beautiful love dead, but Steven Hyde almost seemed to think it was funny.

“Oh, _shut up_ Hyde,” Jackie bit at him, as she made her way past him, glaring, heading into the bedroom. She slammed the door closed behind her, to Michael’s muffled protests. She didn’t care. She might love Michael, tragic love story and all, but Michael had also very much ruined whatever relationship they had. There was a part of Jackie, that was tempted to go out there, and just forgive him. After all, Michael had shown up. It wasn’t his fault, that he didn’t always say the right thing. But the rest of her was too angry, too upset to ever speak to Michael again.

* * *

This ski trip had turned into a trip from hell. Hyde and Kelso were debating whether or not it would be funny to draw a moustache on the sleeping Fez, who laid sprawled across the couch and occasionally let out small whimpers in his sleep. Donna shifted a little uncomfortably in her seat, she was having one hell of a weird night. Jackie’s sobs from the bedroom had died down. Donna knew her friend well enough to know, that there was no point in trying to talk to Jackie as long as she was upset enough to cry about something. It would be like talking to a wall. Or as Hyde had proved earlier, it could make things a lot worse. But now that Jackie was seemingly done crying, Donna knew she should go talk to her. A not so small part of her, also wanted to get out of being in the same room as Eric and Hyde.

She couldn’t believe Hyde had actually kissed her! Donna had known, obviously, that he liked her. You would have to be nearly blind to miss that. If the dance at the disco in Kenosha hadn’t made it completely obvious, Christmas definitely had. But Donna was with Eric, even if Eric hadn’t properly asked her to be his girlfriend just yet, and Hyde had teased her enough about liking Eric, that she figured it wouldn’t be an issue. That he would just drop it. Apparently, she’d been wrong about that.

Donna got up from the couch and made her way to the bedroom of the cabin. She’d been expecting to just have a nice weekend with Eric and the rest of her friends. But then, Hyde had decided to ruin it. And then Kelso had shown up to upstage Hyde, and once again prove himself to be the king. Donna opened the door, and found Jackie lying in the dark bedroom in the middle of the bed, hugging her knees to her chest. Donna closed the door behind her and switched a light on. That made Jackie sit up. “I don’t wanna talk,” she said with a small voice.

“Liar,” Donna said with a tiny smile, sitting down on the bed next to Jackie. Jackie wrapped both her arms around her, and she pressed her face into her shoulder. Normally, Donna wasn’t as much for the hugs, as her smaller friend was, but right now she was kind of grateful for it. Not only, was it helping Jackie, but it was also taking her mind off this whole Hyde thing, and how the hell she could ever tell Eric about it.

“I hate Michael,” Jackie muttered into Donna’s shoulder. Her voice was thick from having cried earlier. Donna definitely understood what she meant. She stroked her back. “And I hate that I still wanna forgive him.”

“Jackie, look at me,” Donna said, making Jackie look up to practically glare at her. Even if there wasn’t much strength in her eyes, and they still looked watery. Her cardigan was askew, from how she’d been curled up on the bed. “You don’t hate Kelso, you just hate him for being a dillhole. But you also deserve better than some dillhole who cheats on you with the first blonde skank, he sees, got it?”

“I don’t know what to do without Michael,” Jackie said with a tiny, barely audible voice, looking completely serious. Something tightened in Donna’s throat, she felt really bad for Jackie. Kelso might be her friend, and he would probably be upset about Jackie not taking him back for a while, considering how mad he got, whenever Fez tried to hit on Jackie. But as much as Kelso was her friend, she doubted he’d feel as helpless, as Jackie looked like she was. It made Donna want to get up and get out in the living room, just to punch Kelso in the face a couple of times, just for good measure.

“Jackie, two days ago Kelso tied his own shoelaces together as practice for a burn, and then when he got up to leave, he’d forgotten and fell flat on his face,” Donna said instead of leaving. She was pleased when she saw a small watery smile, sneak its way onto Jackie’s face. “I think, you’ll be fine.”

“Thanks Donna,” Jackie said with a small smile, resting her head against Donna’s shoulder again. Donna didn’t really mind that Jackie was getting snot all over her shirt. Maybe, she usually wasn’t as enthusiastic about their friendship. But Donna didn’t mind this. Donna had never had any friends, that wanted to talk about stuff like this with her. This was surprisingly not bad. Neither of the girls said anything for a long moment, before Jackie continued. “Tell me more stupid stuff, Michael did.”

“Alright,” Donna started with a small grin. She understood why Jackie wanted to hear about it. “So, there was this one time, Kelso tried to build a rocket launcher out of firecrackers.”

* * *

_Sure, a lot of Hyde’s friends would say his conspiracy theories were crazy. But this was the first time, Hyde himself was actually convinced he’d lost it. Not only was he actually going to participate in a Christmas tradition, and give someone a present that wasn’t a brown paper bag, candy, firecrackers or a comic book. No, he was going to buy a Christmas present for a chick, a chick he really liked. Namely Donna. Only, he had no idea how exactly to do that. He leant against the kitchen counter and took a deep breath._

_Sure, Hyde knew the basics, he would get something that showed how much she meant to him. Maybe even helped convince her, that she shouldn’t be with Forman, but with him instead. As shitty, as it made him feel to think that. Hyde took another sip of his soda. He had to stop thinking about Forman so much. The shrill voices of Jackie’s vapid cheerleader friends interrupted his thoughts. In true Fez fashion, Fez was trying to convince them to come to Forman’s party later. Hyde hoped, he failed. Sure, he didn’t mind Jackie too much on a normal day, even if he complained a lot about Kelso dragging her down in the basement constantly, but he wasn’t sure he could handle 3 Jackie clones on top of her. It would just give him a headache._

_Jackie herself was standing by the sink, pouring a glass of water. Her dark hair was pulled away from her face, and she was wearing a red fur trimmed coat. She looked like a doll, more than an actual person. Hyde quickly pushed that thought out of his head. He had definitely lost it, if he thought Jackie Burkhart looking like a doll, and not just the spoiled rich brat, she actually was. Dolls were pretty, not vapid, egotistical and annoying. Then an idea struck him. Jackie knew Donna, and Jackie had helped Donna pick out a good present for Eric. “Jackie, come here,” he said, before he could convince himself it was a shitty idea._

_“Why?” she bit back, not moving an inch. Because nothing with Jackie ever seemed to come easy. It was probably why Kelso, had such a hard time trying to break up with her. She just wasn’t that easy to get rid of._

_“Just come here,” he said, gesturing towards himself. Jackie finally seemed to listen to him._

_“Hyde, if you wanna make out with me, the answer’s probably no,” she said, as she headed towards him, as if that was something, she actually needed to make clear. For a split second, he was too dumbfounded to say anything, or ask her what he meant to do. Her dark curls framed her face. Sure, she was kind of hot, if you could ignore all the crap she said, that was the one part of Kelso’s insistence on dating her, he actually got. But there was a long way from that to actually wanna make out with her. She probably just assumed all guys were attracted to her, like Kelso assumed all chicks wanted to nail him._

_“Right, okay,” Hyde said quietly, and explained to her, what he actually wanted to ask her about, Donna’s Christmas present. Even, if he didn’t want her to know, it was for Donna necessarily. Maybe, he would remember what she’d just said for later. It would make a pretty sweet burn on Kelso, and it would probably get her embarrassed about it._


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so much for the nice response to the prologue of this. It really means a lot.  
> I unfortunately don't have a set updating schedule for this, because my schedule is a little bit crazy at the moment. But I will be a chapter ahead writing wise, in order to avoid leaving you hanging for too long, with that I hope you enjoy this chapter.

It was cold, way too cold. Probably colder than in Iceland or something. Jackie’s winter coat might be very cute, but right now it wasn’t doing the job, that a winter coat probably should do. She dragged the toe of her boot through the snow. Jackie would have stayed inside, but Donna had practically dragged her out here. She hugged the jacket tighter around herself. Her eyes followed, as the foreign kid Fez and Donna reappeared on the top of the hill. Fez still practically looked green in the face. Eric was waiting for them at the top, waddling awkwardly around on his skis. Like a lost duck.

Jackie could ski just fine, that wasn’t the problem. It was just harder to look cute, when you skied with the wind and all that, and the Burkharts hadn’t gotten permission to build a lift, despite how hard her father had tried to get a permit, so you had to walk back up the hill. It didn’t look good. And even if Michael had shattered her heart and stomped on it, she still needed to look good. Her mom would have told her that, if she was here. So, Jackie just chose not to ski. She dragged the tip of her boot through the snow again.

The other girls would laugh at her, when she came back to school on Monday, Jackie knew it. They might send her pitying looks, but behind her back, they would laugh. That wasn’t even necessarily the worst part, the worst part was that she liked Michael a lot. Maybe even truly loved him, like people did in movies. Michael was fun, and he could be sweet with a little bit of convincing, and even though his friends were all losers, Jackie didn’t mind hanging out with them too much, if she was completely honest. Jackie stomped once hard in the snow. And she’d thought Michael had liked her too. Another stomp, that left a deep foot print in the snow.

But her mother would also tell her something else, that it was wrong to sulk. At least over something like this, and when you didn’t get anything out of it. Jackie balled her fists and took a deep breath. They had all gone up here without Michael, so maybe she should attempt to enjoy herself, and forget Michael was here. Even if this would have been more fun still being with Michael, and not having her heart completely broken. Jackie headed towards the edge of the hill, where everyone else was. Or for the time being, at least Eric, Donna and Fez.

“Hi Jackie,” Donna said, as Jackie approached the rest of them. She came to a halt, next to Donna, Eric and Fez. It was snowing a little bit, but at least it wasn’t a snow storm or something like that. “You’re still not gonna ski?” Donna asked, brushing hair out of her face, which really proved Jackie’s point.

“Please! You may not care about how your hair looks, but some of us do,” Jackie said, hoping to sound as confident in her voice as she could. And decidedly not as vulnerable, as when Donna had checked up on her last night. Jackie fiddled with her hair, to underline what she had just said.

“Suit yourself,” Donna replied with a hand gesture, and a barely hidden eye roll. Not that Jackie particularly cared about that. Fez stumbled around until he managed to get his skis pointed in the right direction. Clearly this whole skiing thing was new to him. Jackie didn’t know much about Fez’ homeland, but they clearly didn’t have snow or mountains. “Come on, Eric,” Donna said in Eric’s direction. She smiled at him. “I’ll race you to the bottom.”

“Oh, you’re on, missy,” Eric said, as Donna set off, and he followed her down the sloping hill.

“Guys come on! You never wait for me, and Jackie refuses to ski,” Fez added, before he started after the other two, a lot more awkwardly than what Eric and Donna had just done. Jackie was alone on top of the hill again. The chill cut into her bones, and she hugged her coat tighter around herself. Michael and Hyde were headed up the hill, and that was almost enough to make Jackie turn her back on the hill and go sit by the fire or something. However, Eric and Donna might actually make it back, before Michael got up the hill.

Michael wasn’t the most coordinated at the best of times. Sometimes, it was sort of endearing, but mostly it had been an ongoing project of Jackie’s to at least get him to dance better. If Michael was going to be a rich lawyer someday, like Jackie had hoped for, before he had crushed her heart into a thousand pieces, it wouldn’t do that he fell over his own legs, at some fancy lawyer party. And Jackie knew fancy lawyer parties were a thing, because her parents had gone to them all the time and left at home with the maids. Jackie bit down on her lip, and watched as Michael almost lost a staff, and just barely managed to stop it, before it started rolling down the hill.

“You know, you could throw a snowball at him?” Hyde said, wrestling Jackie out of her thoughts. Some snow had been sprinkled on the stupid sunglasses, he insisted on wearing. She looked up at him, she’d been so caught up looking at Michael, that she hadn’t noticed Hyde had made it back up the hill. Jackie gave him a pointed glare.

“Why would I do that?” Jackie asked with gritted teeth. She crossed her arms. Sure, sometimes Hyde wasn’t the worst of Michael’s friends, and even though he had let her cry all over him last night, he had also been a stupid jerk. He had not only been a stupid jerk once, he’d been a stupid jerk twice.

“Well, probable cause for one. you did catch him messing around with Pam Macy,” Hyde said with a smirk. Jackie rolled her eyes, practically to the back of her head. “Plus, bet seeing him fall face first into the snow would feel pretty good all things considered.”

“Now, just because you said that, I’m not gonna,” Jackie shot back stubbornly. Since, when did he care what she thought about anything, or felt about Michael kissing that slut Pam Macy? He probably just thought, it would be funny, if Michael got hit in the face with a stupid snowball. It would be something Hyde would do, Jackie was convinced of as much.

“Whatever, man,” Hyde said, his expression unreadable behind the sunglasses, he for some reason always wore. He bent down and collected a bunch of snow in his bare hands. It wouldn’t surprise her the slightest, if Hyde was too poor to afford gloves. She had barely come to that conclusion, before Hyde pressed the snow into a ball. “Guess, I gotta do everything myself,” he said and threw the ball in Michael’s direction, before Jackie could do anything to stop him.

“Ow, damn, I got snow under my jacket!” Michael practically shrieked, flailing with his arms. The edges of her mouth tugged upwards slightly. She had to admit, that might be a little satisfying to watch at least in the back of her mind. Out of the corner of her eye, Jackie realized Hyde was smirking. Probably, because he had been completely right. It felt like a cold splash of water. She quickly turned her expression into a very pointed frown, as she turned towards him to face him.

“You are an immature _ass_ , Steven Hyde!” she said pointedly, and tried to shove him, hard. Unfortunately, she didn’t get him to fall over on his skis, but it at least momentarily wiped the smirk of his stupid face.

“You’re the one, who thought it was funny,” he said, almost under his breath, as Jackie turned her back to head back to the cabin. Donna would have to drag her out again, if she wanted to, Jackie really couldn’t care less. Maybe she’d read _Spy vs Spy_ or something.

* * *

“Donna come on!” Hyde heard a shrill voice, as he and Eric put the last of their bags into the trunk of the car, and the door to the Burkharts’ ski cabin closed. They could head back to Point Place, as soon as everyone had gotten their butts into the Vista Cruiser. Which was probably exactly why the owner of the shrill, practically ear-piercing voice, had decided to hold up this whole thing. Jackie’s arms were crossed, and she tried to look as intimidating as possible, clearly. Which was kind of hard, since Big Red was roughly twice her height.

“No, forget it I’m sitting in the front with Eric, I’m not sitting next to-“ Donna started, and quickly cut off, when she noticed their argument was being watched. Alright, so maybe the problem wasn’t entirely just Jackie. Hyde tried to push the queasy feeling down and ignore it. The same queasy feeling, he had been trying to ignore last night, when Donna had first yelled that she was here with Eric, not him. He looked away at the darker trees, wondering if it would just be quicker to walk through the forest and leave his friends here to argue amongst themselves. If he was right about the reason, the girls were arguing, it would probably immediately solve the problem. “You can just sit next to Fez,” Donna suggested.

He didn’t feel bad about a lot of stuff, but he did sort of feel bad about last night. Sure, Forman and Donna were kind of together, but they also weren’t really, and it wasn’t like he had asked to like Donna. He just always had. She was the coolest chick he knew, liked all the right kind of music, and probably the only person, he’d ever even remotely consider telling anything about his ma. Forman would start pitying him, Kelso wouldn’t get it and neither would Fez and in some hell dimension, where he told Jackie, she’d probably that’s what all poor people are like. But Donna would get it. And he’d thought- well, it didn’t really matter what he’d thought. People got over crushes all the time, so he was just gonna try and leave her alone until that magical moment happened.

“She can’t sit next to me,” Fez said in a move that was very uncharacteristic for him. Normally, he would have jumped at the chance to sit next to his Goddess or whatever. Jackie shot Fez a look, that was practically murderous, but he somehow seemed completely oblivious to it. “I want to sit next to Kelso, I didn’t get to all the way up here. And Kelso doesn’t want to sit next to Hyde – he’s scared about his eye.”

“It’s true, I am,” Kelso supplied unhelpfully. If he hadn’t already had a pretty good idea about why exactly Donna and Jackie were arguing, he definitely had one now. “But Jackie, you can just sit on top of me, if there’s not space enough,” Kelso added. Hyde rolled his eyes.

“Oh, _shut up_ , Michael,” Jackie bit at him. Hyde might have punched Kelso in the shoulder, if he had been standing next to him. Sure, Jackie could be annoying a lot of the time, to be honest most of the time, but his friend couldn’t possibly be that dumb. But then again, Kelso always seemed to be able to find a new low just when you weren’t expecting it.

“Man, I can just drive,” Hyde suggested to Forman. Eric immediately gave him a sceptical look, even though Hyde could definitely drive a car ten times better than Forman could. “We’re gonna freeze our asses off, before these guys agree on shit.”

“Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!” Forman said, practically taking a leap backwards, as if he was afraid Hyde would jump him and wrestle the keys away from him. He held up his hands in defence. “Red is going to literally kill me, if I let anyone else drive the Cruiser. I’m staying in the driver’s seat, and that’s it,” he said, with a foot stomp that was probably meant to look decisive.

“Oh really-“ Hyde started, knowing full well, he could definitely be threatening enough to get Forman to budge, no matter how scary Red Forman could look. Forman gave him his best stubborn look, but Forman was about as intimidating as Jackie on a good day. Jackie might actually be more intimidating even on a bad day. Hyde was about to continue.

“Alright, fine!” Jackie cut in, loudly enough that it immediately got everyone’s attention. Not, that it was particularly difficult for Jackie to be loud. She threw her arms up in frustration. Jackie exchanged a quick look with Donna. “I’ll sit in the backseat.”

“Finally,” Fez said with a deep sigh, but Jackie ignored that because the two girls exchanged another quick look. That did make Hyde feel like shit. He wasn’t sure whether the tiny brunette was gonna run her mouth about him trying to kiss Donna last night, but she definitely knew.

The point of last night hadn’t been to make Donna feel bad or creeped out or anything like that. There’d been enough sleazy dudes hanging around Edna, that he wasn’t trying to be one on purpose. But Donna and Forman weren’t like a thing really, at least not yet, and he just liked Donna. It had seemed fair enough. He might have apologized, if he knew how to do it. Instead he waited for Kelso and Fez to get in the car and watched as Donna took the seat next to Forman. He then took the seat next to Fez, but Jackie didn’t take the last remaining seat in the Cruiser. “Can’t you scoot over?” Jackie asked with an edge to her voice.

“Jackie, if I scoot over anymore, Kelso is gonna punctate a lung or something,” Hyde replied. Jackie gave him a glare, and then Fez another one, before she took the seat next to Hyde with an annoyed huff. She immediately crossed her arms and clearly did her best to look as pissed off as possible.

“And, if I don’t have lungs, I’m going to have a real hard time serenading you, when you come running back to me,” Michael said, as Forman started the car and slowly started to roll away from the ski cabin.

“Michael,” Jackie started with a smile that came across as so sickly sweet, that it was definitely fake no question about it. Hyde caught her balling her hands up into fists, as they were shaking. Not that he was paying particular attention to what she was doing. “You can’t sing. And even, if you were the last man on Earth, I wouldn’t take you back.”

“Kelso leave her alone, man,” Hyde said. Not that he cared that much, but it was going to be annoying to listen to all the way back to Point Place. And considering Jackie’s friend catching Kelso slutting it up with Pam Macy, and their various fights and all of Jackie’s crying, maybe she deserved a break. Just maybe.

“Everyone’s against me,” Kelso said with a huff. Jackie seemed to shift a little bit in her seat, but her expression was blank.

“Because you’re being a moron,” Hyde shot back.

“I’m not against you, Kelso,” Fez added with a pat on Kelso’s shoulder. Kelso gave him what looked like a grateful smile. “Although, you could treat your Goddess much nicer.”

“That’s still being against me, Fez!” Kelso protested.

* * *

_Jackie was never really going to stop asking herself what the hell Michael saw in his gang of friends. Or maybe that wasn’t entirely true. Donna could be nice on occasion, and she’d be a lot nicer, if she let Jackie help her out with her hair. And the foreign boy Fez was okay, when he wasn’t practically smothering Jackie. But Eric and Hyde, she was never going to get why Michael liked being around. Jackie stood in her own thoughts by the sink, as she half heartedly listened to Fez trying to hit on Lisa, Jenny and Tracy._

_“Jackie, come here.” A voice cut through her thoughts. Jackie rolled her eyes, where he couldn’t see her. Speaking of people, she didn’t get why Michael wanted to be around._

_“Why?” she asked, turning her head towards him. Hyde was standing by the kitchen wall, sipping a soda. Jackie couldn’t tell what he was thinking of, or what he wanted to say. Then she remembered Jason, the freshman from the other day, and shuddered. Even though, it would obviously be ridiculous if Steven Hyde wanted to confess his love to her and kiss her under the mistletoe, like Jason had wanted to. Hyde was poor, and he liked that stupid band, so obviously he had bad taste._

_“Just come here,” he said, his voice a little more hushed like he didn’t want Fez and the girls to hear them. He still hadn’t told her, what he wanted to say or do either. That made Jackie decide, that she should better be safe than sorry._

_“Hyde, if you wanna make out with me, the answer’s probably no,” Jackie said, almost cringing at her own words as soon, as they came out of her mouth. Probably no? That wasn’t how, she had meant to say that at all! The answer was 100% no, never in a million years, not even if it made her young forever or Hyde was secretly a prince. She managed to keep her face straight. Luckily, Hyde looked too taken aback to even burn her with anything._

_“Right, okay,” he said. Sure, he wouldn’t look too bad, if he shaved off those sideburns and wore less dirty clothes, but the answer would still be 100% no. “Look Jackie, I know this girl alright, and I wanna give her a Christmas present.”_

_“Oh my god, it’s Donna,” she exclaimed. Sure, she’d figured that out months ago, before Donna and Eric had even kissed, but it was always nice to get the confirmation that she was a genius at love. She hadn’t told Donna, that she knew Hyde had a crush on her obviously, because while Jackie didn’t get it at all, Donna really seemed to like scrawny Eric._

_“It’s not Donna,” he said quickly, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. Jackie remembered that boys were bad at this kind of stuff, unless you gave them a little help. And besides, she would rather he didn’t decide to burn her with what she had said two minutes ago, so she decided to appease him._

_“Okay, it’s not Donna,” she said defensively. Jackie decided, it couldn’t hurt to give him advice. If nothing else, Eric might get it together and ask Donna to be his girlfriend. Not that she particularly hoped so for Donna’s sake, but if Donna wanted to be Eric’s girlfriend, Jackie could at least pretend to tolerate it. Jackie shuffled a little from foot to foot. “So, how much do you have to spend?”_

_“Six dollars,” he replied quickly. She slapped his arm, because there was such a thing as being beyond help, even to a love genius like herself._


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: this chapter does use 4 lines from season 1, episode 14 "Stolen Car" in the last scene. That writing is obviously not mine, and I claim no right to it either.

As much as Kitty had had a nice weekend alone with her husband, after he’d apologized for the whole Lynn Taylor debacle again, of course, she was excited that the kids would be home in a few moments. Especially considering the awful weather. It had already been snowing, when the kids had left for the Burkharts’ ski cabin. She really hoped, they hadn’t gotten stuck in all that snow. Sure, according to Red the children had everything they needed to get out, if they did, as long as Eric wasn’t a dumbass – Red’s words not hers. But Kitty wasn’t too sure, at the very least she would be happy, when the kids made it home.

Moments later, Kitty heard the sound of the Vista Cruiser rolling into the driveway, and she couldn’t help but smile to herself. It was good to know, they’d made it home safe, despite all that snow. Kitty continued putting the groceries away, as she watched the children out of the corner of her eye. Normally, she wouldn’t have gone to the Piggly Wiggly so late, but she had been quite busy with the house all day, after Red had taken her out the previous night. She noticed Eric carrying Donna’s bags, and smiled to herself, he was such a sweet boy. Donna clearly appreciate the gesture too, if her smile in Eric’s direction was anything to by.

“Hey mom,” Eric greeted her, as the children made their way into the kitchen, no doubt headed for the basement. He didn’t pause to give her a hug, but he did flash her a quick smile, as he made it past her. Kitty would settle for that.

“Hi sweetheart, I’m glad you made it back,” Kitty replied with a beaming smile. Eric and Donna were followed closely by Michael and the foreign kid Fez enthralled in a conversation, a Steven with a sour face, and at the end, trailing a little behind them, the Burkhart girl, Jackie. She was the only one of the children, who didn’t immediately head for the basement. Kitty had half expected Michael and Jackie to be all sweet on each other, but it didn’t seem to be the case at all.

“Mrs Forman-“ Jackie said, drawing Kitty’s attention to her even more, than Jackie not being arm in arm with Michael Kelso did. “Can I use your landline? I need to call my parents and get Maria to come pick me up, if daddy will let her borrow the Lincoln.”

Kitty had no idea who this Maria person was, but knowing how wealthy the Burkharts were, she made a guess, it was their maid. Pamela Burkhart certainly didn’t seem the type to do work around the house. When there were parent teacher conferences at the school, Pamela Burkhart usually just showed up in a pantsuit and with sunglasses that covered most of her face. “Won’t Michael take you home in time for dinner?” Kitty asked, rather than answering Jackie’s question.

“No,” Jackie said, her voice clearly watery. Kitty might not exactly like or know the Burkharts particularly well, but she did feel sorry for the girl just from the expression on her face. Especially knowing that Michael had left for the ski cabin to try and make amends with her. Or at least Kitty was fairly certain, that was why he had gone. It was sometimes a bit hard to tell with Michael Kelso.

“Oh dear,” Kitty replied with a nervous laugh. Jackie’s expression was blank, but she was clearly upset just from the tone of her voice. She was clearly trying to hide, how she felt and not doing too good of a job. “Are you alright?”

“No,” Jackie repeated and slumped down on one of the bar stools by the counter, now with a frowny pout on her face. Jackie let out a deep sigh, before she continued. “Michael and I broke up, because he made out with that slutty bitch!”

“Oh-“ Kitty started, biting down the protest of the foul language. It was unlikely Jackie would have listened anyhow with parents like hers. And maybe deep down, Kitty was sympathetic to Jackie’s assessment of the girl, mostly because of Lynn Taylor. She reminded herself that Red had apologized, repeatedly, before letting the anger boil up to the surface again. “Oh- that is- He left for the ski cabin to see you, didn’t he?”

“He didn’t do anything to prove his love for me,” Jackie said with a melodramatic wave of her arms. It was very dramatic, even if Kitty did understand, where she was coming from. “He didn’t even apologize, Mrs. Forman!”

Kitty briefly considered marching down the stairs, and demand Michael Kelso apologize, like she would have done when the kids were small, and Laurie used to steal Eric’s toys. But the kids weren’t 6 anymore. Instead, Kitty put a hand on Jackie’s arm, which had once again settled on the counter, and gave it a small squeeze. Jackie didn’t protest but gave Kitty a small smile. “Well, sometimes these things take time, Jackie,” Kitty said.

Red had been too stubborn to apologize to begin with, back when it happened, Kitty remembered. It had taken him a week, and by then Kitty had been far too upset to speak to him. They hadn’t spoken at all for almost two months following that, Red continuing to try to apologize. Kitty still loved him dearly of course, but she had needed time, before she could consider forgiving him for it. When she’d had that time, she had agreed to let him make it up to her.

“You think so?” Jackie said hopefully, almost like the words were spilling out of her mouth without her wanting to. She looked like she was surprised, she said it. She looked down on her hands for a moment and looked to swallow hard, and once again Kitty found herself feeling bad for the girl. She wasn’t sure, if Michael would apologize to Jackie properly, she hoped he would, if the two teenagers really liked each other.

“Red can drive you home in time for dinner, if you like,” Kitty suggested mostly to say something. Her husband would protest, but Kitty knew how to be convincing, if she had to.

“No offense, Mrs Forman but your car would look weird in my neighbourhood. People would think, he was there to steal something,” Jackie fired back, and Kitty rolled her eyes where Jackie couldn’t see it. Even though, she did notice the way the girl visibly steeled her expression, as she said it.

“Well, you can use the phone then,” Kitty retorted, not wanting to sound upset at the girl’s refusal to let them help. Or her implication that they weren’t good enough for the Burkharts for that matter. “If that up to your standards, dear.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Forman,” Jackie replied with a smile, that didn’t quite reach her eyes and clearly ignoring the sarcasm in the last part of Kitty’s statement, as she slid down from the stool and headed for the phone.

* * *

For the record, Jackie would have liked it to be noted, that she didn’t exactly miss that dingy basement. She had standards, she would like to uphold and frankly she had only tolerated it for Michael’s sake, and thankfully she didn’t have to do that anymore. It was gross, and it always smelled sort of weird. Of course, Jackie was a nice girl, so she wouldn’t know from experience, but she was fairly sure the smell was pot.

But she hadn’t realized how big a part of her life spending time in the basement with Michael, Donna, Eric, Steven and Fez was, until she wasn’t doing it anymore. The Monday after they got back from the ski trip, Jackie went to school, sat with the cheerleaders as usual for lunch, and then just went home. She mainly saw the other girls at and around practice, and that was only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

She had seen the girls more before, back when she originally got on the team. Before Michael and his friends took up so much of her time. Not that she necessarily minded, that Michael had taken up a lot of her time. He was her boyfriend, and she cared a lot about him. Besides, Donna could be nice to be around on a good day. But Jackie obviously wasn’t going to go back to the basement.

Of course, Tuesday had then been busier, and Jackie had barely thought of Michael, because she’d been too busy concentrating on the routine. The girls had given her looks though, pitiful looks like they felt sorry for Jackie, which did annoy her. She knew them well enough to know, that they were probably just as proud of themselves for having boyfriends, who didn’t slut around with Pam Macy. But she’d pushed that thought out of her head, as quickly as she could and gone back to concentrating on the routine instead.

Now it was Wednesday, and Jackie was faced with Monday’s problem all over again. She’d been trying not to think about, what she could actually do besides homework, when she got home, all morning. She had even barely paid attention, when Leslie had started talking about the boy, who she liked on the football team, or to the Maths questions in her first class that day.

“Jackie!” Jackie stopped in her tracks next to Lisa, who made a confused face at Jackie. Jackie however, recognized the voice. It was the foreigner, Fez. She turned around, her arms crossed to glare at him. He was just beaming at her. Sure, Jackie didn’t mind Fez too much on a normal day, he said a lot of nice things to her, but the way she saw it there could only be two reasons, Fez had found her now. Either Michael wanted to talk, or Fez missed his Goddess. Neither of which, was something Jackie wanted.

“What do you want?” Jackie asked, trying to look as stern and bitchy as possible. Which wasn’t particularly hard. Lisa just looked between the two of them, before rolling her eyes and heading further down the hallway, like Jackie was a lost cause or something. Jackie swallowed hard. Fez just kept staring at her, and Jackie resisted the urge to kick him. “What do you want, Fez?” she repeated.

“Right, sorry. I wanted to ask you to come hang out in the basement with us again,” Fez said, and something inside Jackie’s chest tightened. As much as Eric’s basement had been seriously improved, just by her being there, Jackie didn’t seriously believe that anyone, but Donna and Michael would actually want her to come back. Michael, who she really didn’t want to talk to right now.

“Forget it,” Jackie said and turned on her heel, hoping she would somehow manage to find Lisa, and she hadn’t gotten too far away. Jackie really didn’t want to have this conversation at all. Even if she had nothing to do on days with no practice.

“Jackie-“ Fez started again.

“No Fez, forget it,” Jackie shot back, practically as soon as he opened his mouth to say something.

“Goddess come on. We’re your friends!” Fez protested, and Jackie did a double take. Donna was her friend. But Hyde was a poor asshole who probably smoked weed, and Eric was a scrawny moron who was way too dork. And Michael was her cheating, lying ex-boyfriend. Not to mention, Hyde didn’t like her, Eric regularly called her the devil, and if Michael wanted her back in the basement, it would only be to ask her to take him back. But she wasn’t sure, where to even begin to explain any of that to Fez.

“No. No, you’re not,” Jackie said, keeping a straight face. Not that she minded that no one in the basement was her friend, that definitely wasn’t it. Not it at all. “You would be seriously classed up by my presence, but you’re not really my friends, Fez.”

“Well, Donna is your friend, right?” Fez argued, a hand on her arm, which she quickly wrestled free off. She hated that he was actually kind of right. Jackie looked down at her shoes, instead of meeting Fez’ eyes.

“Alright,” Jackie said with a defeated sigh, before glaring at Fez. His smile had gotten even wider, if that was even humanly possible. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes or kick him. “If you can promise me one thing – this has nothing to do with Michael.”

“What?” Fez squeaked. He seemed to straighten his face, before he continued. “Of course, it doesn’t Goddess. You’re just right, we could do with some classing up.”

Jackie didn’t believe him, not really in her heart of hearts. But maybe there was a tiny part of her in the back of her head, that she didn’t want to really own up to, that wanted it to be Michael’s idea. If Michael wanted her to hang out in the basement, maybe he would properly apologize. He was still a lying, cheating dillhole, but Jackie also still cared about him. She pushed the feeling down, reminding herself that she didn’t want Michael to try and win her back. That wasn’t what she wanted.

* * *

“Is this weird?” Donna asked, as Jackie sat down in the couch. Jackie smoothened her skirt. Donna had promised her, that Eric would be cool with Jackie being back in the basement. Or that Donna had at least done her very best to make sure, Eric wouldn’t complain. Considering how much of a crush scrawny Eric had on Donna, Jackie was pretty sure, she believed her. Donna sat down on the other side of the couch, resting her feet on the table.

“Little bit,” Jackie replied to Donna’s question, realizing she hadn’t actually answered. She crossed her arms and uncrossed them again. Jackie shifted a little bit more in her seat, she wasn’t entirely sure, she wanted to stay in the basement yet. Even if she did have nothing else to do today, as sad as that sounded. “I’m almost a little bit worried, Michael is going to burst through the door.”

“That’s fair,” Donna said with a small smile. She turned her head to look at her. “Do you want him to burst through the door?”

“No,” Jackie said with a shake of her head. Donna gave her a slightly sceptical look, and Jackie wished she could erase the conversation, they’d had completely from the giant’s memory. Preferably from her own too. Jackie hated crying, had always been told by her mother that crying is pointless, unless you can something out of it. Not necessarily, her mother’s finest moment to say that to an eight year old, but Jackie would rather not dwell on it. “At least, I’m pretty sure I don’t,” Jackie clarified.

“Good for you,” Donna said with a genuine smile and patted Jackie’s arm. Donna and Jackie might be okay friends usually, but Donna was being really nice about this whole thing with Michael. A lot nicer than Jackie had expected her to be, if she was completely honest in her heart of hearts. “Kelso and I are friends, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a dillhole. Nobody deserves to be treated like that.”

She was used to the other girls gossiping behind each other’s backs, whenever something like this happened to one of the cheerleaders, and she and Donna weren’t that good friends, at least Donna sometimes acted annoyed by things, friends shouldn’t be annoyed by. So, it was unexpected that she had actually gotten the support. Maybe her ditching Michael to take her other friends with her to the cabin had won her extra points, Jackie wasn’t too sure, but she hoped it wasn’t just that.

“Donna, I-“ she started, but then the door to the basement opened, and Jackie’s mouth slammed shut, before opening again. “Hi!” she said nervously, as Fez, Eric and Hyde entered the basement, thankfully sans Michael.

“Okay- What were you guys doing?” Eric asked, looking between Donna and Jackie where they were sitting on the old dirty, beat up couch. Jackie was mostly surprised he didn’t say anything about, what she was doing there. Maybe Donna had straightened him up properly. Jackie didn’t get what she saw in scrawny, nerdy Eric, but if that was one of the benefits to their relationship, Jackie would happily take it.

“They were talking about sex!” Fez said, before either of them even got a chance to say anything. Jackie opened her mouth about to protest, but she didn’t get a chance to do it.

“Come on Fez, chicks don’t talk about sex, man. It’s dirty,” Hyde said, practically smirking at them. She wasn’t sure, if the look was directed at one of them specifically. But if Jackie had to make a guess, it was Donna. Donna definitely looked in the other direction straight away.

“Yes, we do!” Jackie protested, Hyde raised an eyebrow, this time definitely looking at her. She could tell even behind his stupid sunglasses. Jackie moved slightly in her seat, and averted her eyes, fixing her expression. She could see his smirk get wider at that, and she was more than slightly tempted to kick him.

“But we weren’t,” Donna quickly clarified, before either Hyde or Jackie could say anything else. Donna shared a look with Eric, and now Jackie was more tempted to roll her eyes at that. She’d thought that even with her and Michael’s fight, Eric and Donna would have at least sorted their thing out. Apparently, Jackie had been sorely mistaken about that. “Just to- you know, clarify.”

“You buying this, Fez?” Hyde asked in Fez’s direction.

“No,” Fez said with a grin, and if Jackie could have physically managed to, she would have kicked both of their shins. Luckily, Donna helped her out by punching Fez in the shoulder, making him let out a whine in protest. Fez proceeded to rub his arm and sent a disappointed look in Donna’s direction.

“Fez doesn’t count, he thinks everything is about his needs!” Jackie protested. She shot a glare in Hyde’s direction.

“Ah yes,” Eric said from where he was sitting on the back of the couch. He let out an overly dramatic sigh and Jackie rolled her eyes, which Eric couldn’t see from where he was sitting. Not that Jackie cared that much, if he could. She definitely wasn’t worried about him deciding she couldn’t go to the basement or something. “There is the Jackie we know and- know.”

“Eric be nice,” Donna said, looking up at scrawny Eric. “Besides, I’m- glad Jackie is here. You losers get boring to hang around after a while.”


	4. Chapter 3

In Fez’ case, it could be excused. Fez had known Kelso for a much shorter period of time and could be much more receptible to Kelso’s convincing. And Kelso could be very convincing, when he wanted to be. But Forman and Hyde should have learned by now, they really should have. They’d known Kelso since he moved here in first grade for crying out loud. They should know. Never ever listen to something Michael Kelso saying he has a good idea, unless it involves nobody but Kelso.

Falling or jumping off the water tower was objectively a bad idea, but at least, unless Kelso managed to grab one of them, it was only Kelso who got hurt. That time, when they were 10 and Kelso decided to steal a cow from one of the local farmers had also been a bad idea. But at least, it had only been Forman and Kelso getting caught by the farm’s very angry guard dog. And Forman was faster than Kelso.

Kelso had a tendency to either have been given something that sounded too good to be true or loudly proclaim to have the “best idea ever.” And Forman and Hyde should have learned by now, that if the best idea ever involved them, it was definitely a bad one. Because there had been a lot of those.

Even in the historic amount of really bad ideas, Hyde was pretty sure, this one had to take the cake. They had never ended up in jail before, not even after they had stolen that Christmas tree at Christmas from the side of the road. But here they were, sitting in a line on practically rusty metal chairs staring at a grey cement wall, in jail because of a stupid car.

“If I call Red, I’m dead,” Forman said, voice steady but clearly nervous. He was fidgeting more on his chair, than he usually was. “Even if my mom picks up, Red is going to know, and I’ll be dead.”

“You say that with everything, man,” Kelso added, but he wasn’t looking at Forman, and to Hyde, Kelso’s protest sounded weak. Like he didn’t really believe Forman was overreacting.

“Yes, but this time, I’m _dead_ ,” he bit back. Considering the fact that they had all been convinced Forman was overreacting about the scratch on the Cruiser, only to be convinced the second they noticed Red’s head snap around, Hyde believed him. Not that he could do anything to help, like he’d already said it was poker night. If they called Edna, she’d probably just drunkenly yell in their face and hang up, wasting their one chance to get out of this hell hole.

None of them said anything for a minute, just sitting there in a straight line on the chairs where the cops had placed them. This had to be illegal somehow, none of them were over 18, so you couldn’t just keep people, right? Of course, Hyde also knew the system didn’t actually care much about the rules, as much as they pretended to, so even if it was illegal, he was pretty sure that wouldn’t be much help. Something flashed over Kelso’s face, and Hyde immediately had a bad feeling.

“I know what we can do,” Kelso said, clearly proud of his idea, which probably meant it was worse than Hyde suspected. He mentally prepared himself for whatever it was. “Jackie’s dad is a lawyer, he can get us out of here. I can call Jackie and convince her to help us.”

“Man, did you hit your head?” Hyde asked immediately, the idea turned out to actually be even worse, than he’d expected it to be. Which was really saying something. Not only did Jackie hate Kelso’s guts, but even though she had been back in the basement for the last day, she didn’t like any of the rest of them either. And doing something out of the goodness of her heart, didn’t really seem to be Jackie’s style. “Jackie broke up with you less than a week ago, she’s gonna hang up as soon as you call.”

“No, come on, man. Jackie doesn’t want me to rot in jail!” Kelso said, and Fez gave him an affirming look, which of course only made it so much worse. Hyde resisted the urge to roll his eyes to the back of his head, if only barely. “Besides, she loves me. She just needs a bit of time to get over me making out with Pam Macy, and then she’ll come back.”

“Kelso, you’re the king,” Forman muttered, staring straight ahead at the grey cement wall. Forman, like himself was clearly wondering, how everything had gone so wrong, that they had ended up here, stuck in a jail cell with Kelso and Fez. Hyde sure was wondering exactly that.

“Well, do any of you idiots have a better idea?” Fez protested, glaring at Hyde and Forman as if he was disappointed, nobody was on board with Kelso’s plan. Understandably, considering Fez had a lot less experience with Kelso’s stupid ideas.

“We could call Donna. But she’d probably have to ask Midge or Bob to help,” Forman said, and then immediately looked like he reconsidered. “But Mr Pinciotti would tell my dad in a heartbeat, and then I’d still be _dead_.”

“See, none of you have better ideas,” Fez pointed out, like he and Kelso were the only ones, who had figured it out. “And like Hyde said, his mother is being poked so she can’t help us either.”

Hyde decided to punch his arm for that. It might be where poker night was going, depending on what mood Edna and whatever buddy she was playing poker with where in, but he really didn’t need his moron friends to remind him of that. “Yeah, lets call Jackie. She’s the only one, who can actually help us.”

“I really hate that this is the best idea we have,” Forman said with a deep sigh, and Hyde was inclined to agree with him.

“Well, if we’re going to rot in jail for the rest of our lives,” Hyde said with a resigned breath, preparing himself for his fate. An inevitable fate, if they went through with this phone call. “It might as well be Jackie Burkhart’s fault.”

* * *

“No!” Jackie should have hung up at least a minute or so ago. Maybe she was losing it, considering the fact that she was still talking on the phone. Michael had called her two minutes ago, because he and the rest of the boys had gotten themselves stuck in jail over a car. A Michael screw up of course. And somehow, she was supposed to want to help them or ask her dad to help them. “I said not until hell freezes over.”

“Come on, Jackie!” Michael said, his voice bordering on whiny, which just made Jackie roll her eyes harder. That was exactly how he sounded, whenever she wouldn’t let him get to second base. So, she’d gotten used to the whiny voice, and could easily block it out and completely ignore it for a fairly long amount of time if necessary. “You know, I’m too fragile to be stuck in jail.”

Over the course of the last two minutes, Michael had run through nearly every possible argument he had. At least, Jackie was pretty sure of that. He’d started by telling her how pretty she was, and that was probably the reason, she was still on the phone. It was nice to hear, but it was going to make her forget he was a two-timing liar, even if he was right that she was the most gorgeous girl in Point Place. Then he’d tried to remind her, she loved him, which was worse. Then switched over to suggesting she just helped him and left the other boys in jail. And now begging.

“Michael, I said no!” Jackie repeated, this time a lot harsher. She was going to end this temporary insanity and hang up. She was going to, right now. If she kept being on the phone, she might accidentally cave and help out Michael and she didn’t want to do that.

“Jackie-“ Michael started, and then there was a scuffle and he was cut off. For a brief moment, Jackie was actually worried that some scary criminal had tackled Michael. She mentally kicked herself, she wasn’t supposed to worry about Michael, she was trying so hard to not care. Thankfully, Michael would have no way of knowing she was worried.

“Don’t hang up,” a voice, belonging to Steven Hyde, said. Well, not quite a scary, big criminal then. Just a poor boy who listened to bad music. She wanted to hang up, probably even more now than she had two seconds ago. Jackie’s face quickly turned into a scowl.

“Not convinced, Hyde,” Jackie said between gritted teeth.

“What do you want?” Hyde asked her, catching Jackie off guard. There wasn’t the usual ten layers of sarcasm, he almost sounded sincere. Which was way weirder and off putting, than the fact that he thought, he could do a better job at convincing her than Michael.

“Excuse me?” she said and sat up a little straighter in her bed. She’d expected him to just complain and hang up, so Jackie wouldn’t have to be the one hanging up.

“Can’t be that hard to wrap your head around, Jackie,” he replied, making her roll her eyes and once again considering hanging up. For some stupid reason, she didn’t. Again, if she was asked later, which she probably wouldn’t be, she would say it was temporary insanity. “What’s it gonna take for you to ask your dad to help us?”

“500 dollars from each of you?” Jackie suggested, already knowing what he was gonna say, before she did. But to be honest, she kind of hoped he’d just give up and hang up.

“Jackie, if we had 2000 dollars, we could just bribe our way out of here,” Hyde shot back. He took a breath, like he was steadying himself to keep having this conversation. She hadn’t expected that. “Something else?”

She still wasn’t sure if he was actually trying to be nice to her, mostly because it didn’t seem like him. There was a lot of things, Jackie could suggest that she knew Hyde would hate doing. And it had to be something, Hyde didn’t want to do. She shuffled a little from how she was sitting on her bedspread. “Jackie, something else?” Hyde repeated a little more irritated, but clearly trying to pretend he wasn’t.

“Fine, apologize to me,” Jackie said, keeping her voice steady. There wasn’t a response for a couple of breaths.

“What?” Hyde said. He sounded disbelieving.

“Apologize for being such a stupid jerk at the ski cabin about me and Michael, and then maybe I’ll ask my dad, if he can help you,” Jackie said matter of factly, still keeping her voice just as steady. She could be really stubborn, when she wanted to be. Like that time, she had to convince Kat to drop Amber from the cheerleading squad, because Amber kept hitting on Michael. It had taken a bit of work, but Jackie hadn’t backed down, and she’d gotten exactly what she wanted.

“That’s emotional blackmail,” Hyde bit back. He had shifted from disbelieving to just plain annoyed, which was exactly what Jackie had expected him to do. If all went to plan, he’d get so annoyed that he would hang up in a second, so Jackie didn’t have to deal with this conversation anymore. Again, there was a voice in the back of her head reminding her, that she could just hang up. But for some reason, Jackie ignored it.

“You asked, what it would take – it’s either this or each of you losers can pay me 500 dollars,” Jackie said, if she’d been facing him and not talking on the phone, she would have probably crossed her arms and pouted. To get the point across.

“No chance in hell,” Hyde said, and Jackie was worried she’d overplayed her hand. She could have just asked them to wear dresses to school for a day or something, and they’d probably have done it. There was another long beat of silence. Jackie could have just hung up, but she was almost a little interested to see, if he’d actually do it. Which wasn’t how she’d expected this conversation to go at all. “Fine,” he finally said with a deep breath.

“And sound like you mean it,” Jackie said, deciding to push her luck just a little more. She might be mostly doing this to get him to do something, he didn’t want to do. But she was kind of mad at him about this weekend, so it wasn’t like she didn’t want this apology.

“ _Fine_ ,” Hyde retorted, and Jackie could practically picture the scowl on his face behind his stupid sunglasses. He didn’t say anything for a long moment, and Jackie wondered again, if she had pushed it too far. “Jackie- I am really sorry about being an asshole over the weekend,” he said, and she was surprised by how sincere, he actually sounded. She hadn’t thought, he had it in him to sound like he actually meant it. Jackie’s grip tightened a little on the phone, until she reminded herself, he was just doing this as a bribe.

“Kelso might have been the most obvious two-timing moron in the world,” Hyde continued, and Jackie thought she heard a faint protest in the background, but neither she nor Hyde paid any real attention to it. Something stilled inside Jackie’s chest. “But that doesn’t mean you should be treated like that, not even you.”

“Thank you, Steven,” Jackie said, and didn’t say anything else for a long moment. It felt oddly- nice to hear that, in a way Jackie hadn’t expected it to do. She’d only said, she would consider asking her dad, if he apologized, but she actually wanted to ask him. “I’ll see, if I can convince daddy to help you.”

Jackie hung up the phone, actually a little surprised that she had actually done this. She took a deep breath before sliding off the bed and padding on soft feet towards her dad’s office. Her dad probably wouldn’t want to help, but at least she had gotten Hyde’s apology out of it. Not that she needed his apology or anything, it was just nice to have.

* * *

At the end of the day, it’s not Jackie’s dad who gets them out of jail. Jackie’s dad doesn’t do shit. Deep down, Hyde knew that she’d only promised to try convincing him, which meant he had to have been aware, there’d be a significant risk, he’d humiliate himself in front of his friends for absolutely nothing. Or worse to make Jackie happy, which definitely wasn’t something he did. In the end, it’s actually Forman who gets them out, just by talking to the officers.

“Freedom!” Kelso screamed at the top of his lungs, as the door to the police station shut behind them. Forman rolled his eyes, but he looked visibly relieved. Probably because he knew, he wouldn’t be in as much trouble with Red, when he got home. The most he’d hear for, was coming home late, which wasn’t the first time and definitely wouldn’t be the last either.

“I can’t believe you grovelled to Jackie,” Forman said, now kind of smirking. The kind of smirk that made Hyde consider punching him. He’d grabbed the phone in order to try and not completely waste their one and only phone call, like Kelso had been about to do. “It’s Jackie.”

“Gotta do, what you gotta do, man,” Hyde replied completely zen and unfazed. Kelso seemed to have decided to lap the parking lot, and Fez was sort of staring at him with an admiring look. “And I did not grovel,” Hyde added for good measure.

“Whatever you got to tell yourself,” Forman said now full on grinning, making Hyde roll his eyes to the back of his head. “I can’t wait to tell Donna about this,” Forman said, the smug grin now with an addition of lovey dovey adoration. Something that always seemed to be on Forman’s face, when he was around Donna.

It wasn’t like Hyde necessarily minded Donna knowing, that they’d spent the last three hours at the Point Place police station. All his friends knew his only future plans consisted of going to prison, and chicks supposedly dug a bad boy kind of thing. It had at least always worked for him before. But what he did mind was the idea of Forman and Donna sitting together, laughing at him for having to try and convince Jackie to help them. They’d probably be sitting closely together too, hands brushing against each other. Hyde shook his head, he had to deal with this crap.

“And I’m sure Red would love to know, why you’re missing curfew,” Hyde bit back, just barely managing to keep his voice even. Even though, he was always zen. Forman immediately held up his hands in surrender.

“Fine. I won’t say anything, you won’t say anything,” Forman said. Of course, Hyde wasn’t going to actually tell, even if Forman did say something to Donna. Not that he was going to say that out loud, but Forman knew that. At least, Hyde was pretty sure he knew that. “Let’s just go home.”

As they headed for the exit, with Kelso catching up to them, Hyde let his thoughts wander. He wasn’t sure, why he’d let himself be bribed by Jackie either. It was probably a mistake, they hadn’t gotten anything out of it, and Jackie was probably going to be annoying about it. She was Jackie after all. But Hyde wasn’t going to worry about that for now. For now, he was going to enjoy his newfound freedom from the oppressive system. Even if he’d had to rely on Forman and Jackie to get it.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies, that this took such an unfairly amount of time. I had midterms, and then immediately followed by starting up a not particularly interesting, but unfortunately important law course at my university. Neither of which is great for creative energy. Sorry about that.

It was all a mind thing, Eric figured. He’d managed to survive 17 years without driving the Cruiser. Managed 17 years with having to ask for rides or walk to places along with his friends. So, however long his dad decided Eric couldn’t use the Vista Cruiser because of the one little scratch, Eric would manage. The door to the school swung shut behind him, and he took a step into the parking lot. The parking lot was still filled with cars. He was full of it, he had absolutely no backbone whatsoever, and damn it, he missed the car.

Kelso’s plan to just borrow a car from a couple of days ago, hadn’t worked out so well. It had ended with Hyde, having to apologize to Jackie being the end result of it. So, not exactly a great success. Even if there was something kind of funny about Hyde of all people, having to apologize to Jackie. Especially considering how often Hyde had made fun of Kelso for the same thing.

Eric continued his slow walk across the parking lot, practically dragging his feet after him. Maybe he was being overly dramatic about this, but he missed the car. Donna had taken her bike to school over the last couple of days, and Hyde had skipped classes today, which wasn’t exactly anything new. Eric honestly had no idea where Kelso and Fez were.

“Hi Forman,” a voice cut through Eric’s thoughts, almost making him jump. Buddy Morgan gave him a grin, and Eric internally told himself to calm down. He hadn’t seen much of Buddy since the whole kissing disaster, but they were still lab partners, and it wasn’t like Eric didn’t want to hang out. Things were just weird with his friends, so they mostly talked in chemistry. Kelso, who was the only one in the same chemistry class as Eric was usually busy trying to blow something up. Eric smiled back to him. “So still stuck without a car huh?”

“Don’t remind me, the wound is too deep,” Eric retorted immediately, and made Buddy let out a laugh. There hadn’t really been anything weird, since then, but he could still tell Buddy was sometimes eating his words. Even if Eric didn’t exactly mind getting called cute, even if it was a guy doing it.

“Well, I can drive you home, if you want?” Buddy suggested with a shrug. Eric should say no, if any of his friends were here, he definitely would have, because he didn’t want to restart the whole Buddy argument again, or the clique jumping thing that Jackie had started going on about. And he knew, it was stupid that he didn’t want to. But then again, none of them were here.

“Are you kidding? Of course, I want to,” Eric said, which only made Buddy’s smile brighter. Both of them got in the car, and Buddy rolled out from the school parking lot. As much as Eric loved the Cruiser, and he did, and he intended to fight for getting her back, at least in time for the wrestling show in Kenosha the coming weekend, the Trans Am was so cool.

It wasn’t exactly news to Eric, that everything about Buddy was cool. It had pretty much been his conclusion, the first time, when his friends had accused him of ditching them for Buddy Morgan. But the car ride was nice. Buddy actually had a proper cassette player in the car, unlike his own multiple failed attempts to get one, so he’d put The Eagles on, as soon as they’d left the school parking lot.

Buddy parked the Trans Am a little further down the street from where Eric lived, the engine shutting off, and the radio falling silent. “You know, just in case Hyde comes charging out with a loaded shotgun,” Buddy argued.

“I don’t think Hyde has a shotgun,” Eric said, which wasn’t really the point, and he knew that, but he didn’t know what to say. He knew, it had just been Hyde being mean, but he also didn’t know how to convince Hyde to change his mind about it, if Buddy hung out at the basement. Usually, if you told Hyde not to do something, he’d just dig his heels in and do it even more. “Besides, I doubt he’s here. He skipped school, so he’s probably at his mom’s house.”

“You know what I mean,” Buddy replied, and Eric just nodded once. There was a part of him, that wanted to apologize to Buddy, but he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to say it either. He was faced with this, whenever he saw Buddy now.

Eric turned to open the Trans Am door and get out, but then paused a moment and turned around. An idea had suddenly struck him. It might be something, Buddy would say no to, but Eric wanted to ask. “You know, we were thinking, if I have the Cruiser back by the weekend, we would go to the wrestling show in Kenosha. Wanna come along?” Eric asked.

“Thanks,” Buddy said and there was a bright smile on his face again. It wasn’t like Buddy wasn’t more popular than Eric, he could definitely get invited to things a lot more than Eric. But it was like, it was that nice that Eric was asking, which he wasn’t going to think too much about. “But no, wrestling’s not really my thing.”

“What? How is wrestling not your thing?” Eric retorted, because honestly, he hadn’t been to see wrestling shows live before, but the ones they occasionally showed on television were awesome. Everyone in their friend group pretty much agreed on it, except Jackie, but she was also the devil, so it made sense, she wouldn’t have the same tastes, as mere mortals would.

“You know, it’s all fake, right?” Buddy replied, crinkles around his eyes.

“Yeah, sure- Still, wrestling should be everyone’s thing,” Eric replied, making the other boy in the car laugh.

* * *

“I don’t understand what the point of that show is, man,” Hyde said to no one in particular. The whole gang was sitting around in the basement as usual. The girls and Fez on the sofa, Forman on the back of it, conveniently behind Donna. Kelso and Hyde took up each of the chairs. Forman gave him a raised eyebrow. “You know, Gilligan is never going to get off that island, right?”

“Hey, you don’t know that, man!” Kelso immediately protested, sounding like Hyde had personally offended him. He gave Hyde a long look, his mouth hanging half open before he continued: “They could get off it!”

“Nah, man. If Gilligan got off the island, they wouldn’t be able to produce any more episodes,” Hyde said. It was something, he’d been thinking of, and even though the show was good, it was something Hyde knew to be true. It was the same with most TV, got to keep making more, so the thing could keep making money. “Gotta keep those capitalist wheels churning. I bet it has like a hundred episodes.”

“Whatever,” Jackie said, and rolled her eyes. Something about it made him feel weird. It was the first thing Jackie had said to him, since the other night. It was still weird to him, the whole thing, as well as this. Luckily, it didn’t show on his expression, he was way too practiced in the art of zen to let it. “It’s still a good show!”

He’d apologized to Jackie of all people, because she’d made him. He wasn’t the type to apologize to anyone, and especially not to people like Jackie, and especially not because she forced him to do it. Even though, she hadn’t done that much forcing. While he had mostly managed to convince himself, the only reason he’d done it, had been to get them out of jail, the whole thing sat weird in his gut. Didn’t help that his friends kept bringing it up, as soon as Donna wasn’t there to try and get a rise out of him.

“Thank you, Jackie,” Kelso said with a beaming smile. Hyde resisted the urge to say something. Someone really needed to explain to his friend, that just because Jackie agreed with him, didn’t mean she liked him. In fact, when it came to Jackie, the less she was giving Kelso a hard time, the more she probably hated him, if Hyde had to make a guess.

“Not talking to you, Michael,” Jackie bit back with another eye roll. She was going to get her eyes stuck or something, if she kept doing that. But surprisingly, he didn’t exactly blame her, as insufferable as both of them were being.

“Well, damn Jackie!” Kelso protested with a wave of his arms, a frown reappearing on his face. Jackie just got up from her seat, as the credits started rolling on the screen. There would be another episode on, after the commercials had finished, but that wouldn’t be for another ten minutes at least. They always played two episodes on Wednesdays.

“I’m gonna go get a soda,” she announced. Nobody seemed to pay her any mind, and honestly Hyde didn’t blame them that much. “Donna!” she said sharply, making Donna get up with a heavy sigh, and follow Jackie up the stairs.

The four boys settled back into a comfortable silence, as soon as Jackie and Donna had left, and the door slammed shut behind them. It always got much quieter in the basement, as soon as Jackie left the basement, in Hyde’s opinion. “I can’t believe, Jackie, man,” Kelso said, because the only other person beside Jackie who could ruin the silence was Kelso. “She won’t even be nice to me.”

There were times Hyde wondered how the hell Kelso had managed to score chicks to begin with, considering how dumb he was. Kelso was his friend, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t well aware of that. Almost anyone should have been able to figure out, why Jackie was being even more pissy at Kelso, than she usually was. Jackie was never exactly nice, but of course, she was going to be mad Kelso cheated on her with Pam Macy of all people.

“Kelso to be fair, you cheated on her with Pam Macy and then she broke up with you,” Eric said, his voice kind of slow. As if he wasn’t sure Kelso would get it otherwise. Which was fair enough.

“Whatever, man,” Kelso said, sulking.

“Right,” Eric said with a shake of his head, clearly like he was giving up on Kelso. Which in Hyde’s opinion was another fair assessment on Forman’s part. “Are we all going to the wrestling show in Kenosha this weekend?”

“Yes, I cannot wait to see these grown men hitting each other,” Fez said with a grin, and Hyde decided not to overthink the expression on his face. It was definitely, something.

“Hell yeah,” Kelso said, reaching over to high five Fez. It would never not be impressive to Hyde, how his friend’s mood could flip on a coin. “But Fez asked Jackie, and she said not in this universe.”

“What the hell do we need Jackie for, man?” Hyde asked. Sure, it might not be the worst thing in the world, but she would probably also complain the entire time, about it being too violent and dirty. It would ruin the show, no doubt about it. Although, it might also be fun to watch her bitch about it, in a sort of masochistic way. “We’re going to see wrestling.”

“Oh really, what do we need Jackie for, Mr. I am so sorry, Jackie?” Fez asked with a smug grin plastered on his face, Hyde sent him a murderous look. For once, Kelso didn’t seem bothered by any of them bringing up the prison incident from last week, instead he just kind of laughed at Fez’ joke.

“You’re lucky, I don’t punch you, Fez,” he bit back, and Fez seemed to have grown a shade paler for a second. Hyde could put up a decent threat, even underneath the zen, if he wanted to. “You sure you can get the Cruiser back before the weekend, Forman?” Hyde asked.

“I’m working on it!” Forman said with a wave of his arms and a defeated sigh. “You know, Red isn’t exactly an easy man to convince. I’m on the verge of begging.”

“We all commend your effort, Forman,” Hyde said with a pat on Eric’s arm.

* * *

The stairs back down to the basement creaked underneath Jackie’s feet. Normally, Jackie would just have left out of the kitchen door or the front door. Like a normal person. But there was something, Jackie wanted to do before she went home, or rather something she wanted to say, and the person she wanted to say it to, was more than likely in the basement.

Michael and Fez had gone home, and Eric was being gross with Donna upstairs. Nobody in their right mind wanted to see that, and Jackie considering herself part of that category. But unlike Michael and Fez, Jackie knew Hyde usually hung around the Formans’ house much longer. Because his mom was even poorer, so it was perfectly understandable in Jackie’s mind. Just like she expected, she found Hyde at the foot of the stairs, sitting in his favourite chair. “Hey,” she said, as a way of announcing her presence.

“Shouldn’t you have gone home by now?” he asked. His expression was hard to read behind the stupid sunglasses. Sometimes Jackie had a hard time understanding how anyone could even begin to have a conversation with him. But maybe that was also kind of the point.

“In a minute,” Jackie said without meeting his eyes, and moved to take a seat on the couch, closest to the chair, where he was sitting. She folded her hands in her lap and then unfolded them. Hyde gave her, what she was pretty sure was a suspicious look, but again it was hard to tell. “There’s something I wanna say first,” she said.

“Jackie-“ he started, and she could clearly tell he was already annoyed with her. Which wasn’t the way, she wanted this to go. She wasn’t even sure, why she was here exactly, but surprisingly she wanted to say something about what he had said to her the other night. And Jackie was going to say her piece, regardless of what Hyde thought about it.

“No, this is important. Shut up!” Jackie protested, before he got a chance to finish. She cringed inwardly. She turned her head to meet his eyes, and surprisingly she actually managed to do it. “Sorry. What I wanted to say was, thank you. You didn’t have to say what you said when you guys got stuck in jail, so I wanted to say thanks for that.”

“Jackie,” Hyde began, and the tone was different this time, more unreadable. It always annoyed her, when she couldn’t tell what other people were thinking. Life was easy to navigate, when you knew what was on other people’s mind. She could do it without thinking when it came to both her parents, had had to learn to do it with them. She’d thought, she could do it with Michael too, she had been wrong on that one. “You gotta know, I just did that to get you to help us out, man, right?”

“Maybe, but you still did it,” Jackie replied. She took a deep breath, before she continued. “I don’t need anyone’s apology, Steven. If I’m honest, I asked you because I thought it’d annoy you so much, you’d hang up and leave me alone.”

She hadn’t meant to actually tell him her intentions behind asking him for an apology. Jackie had figured, he could probably guess already without her necessarily telling him. Her plan had just been to go down here, flash a smile and say thanks and then leave. She still wasn’t sure why, she had even wanted to say thank you for his apology. It was an apology he owed her fair and square, even if she didn’t need it.

“Huh,” Hyde started, the same unreadable expression still on his face. The expression still annoyed her, but there was also something that made her pause. “I’m impressed.”

“Well, anyway, it was nice to hear,” Jackie said, and moved to get up, caught off guard by the second half of his statement. She collected herself for a moment, digging her nails into her palms, before heading for the basement door intent on being home for dinner.

“Hey Jackie,” Hyde said from his chair, and the statement for some reason made her turn around. He’d gotten to his feet, but otherwise hadn’t moved away from the chair. Jackie wasn’t sure, how he would have managed to either. “I know Kelso is being a dillhole-“

“If this is the part, where you try to convince me, Michael isn’t so bad, I don’t wanna hear it,” Jackie quickly cut him off. She crossed her arms to look as stubborn and defiant, as she possibly could. Because if Hyde started telling her about the good things about Michael, she might think of all the good things about Michael, she was trying to keep filed away in the back corner of her mind.

“Nah, just wanna say, I get it,” Hyde said, voice even. “I mean, Kelso is being whiny as hell, and as much as you annoy me too, you shouldn’t have to be stuck with him being a dillhole, just so the rest of us can be left alone.”

“Well-“ Jackie started, because she was in a rare instance, actually not entirely sure what to say. The only times Fez seemed to invite her to hang out in the basement, seemed to be when Michael was there too. And sure, both Eric and Hyde disliked her more than Fez did, but she’d still sort of expected them to take Michael’s side in this. “Thanks. I think.”


End file.
